


Back to L.A.

by leiascully



Series: A Thousand And One Nights [9]
Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: Cohabitation, Domestic, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-14 12:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/836654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt's in LA to film his movie.  Where else would he stay but with Alex?  And who else would he talk to about leaving the show?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back to L.A.

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: pre-announcement of Matt leaving DW  
> A/N: I have no idea where or when Matt is filming other than a few pictures I've seen on Tumblr, so this may not be at all plausible. Apparently there's an interview where Alex talked about how she'd talked to Matt about him leaving, so at least that part's reasonable. I hesitated to bring Salome into this, but as a child of divorced parents, I know how difficult it can be when one of your parents gets into a relationship (or at least, reveals it to you), so I wanted to deal with that. I don't plan on her being in future installments, except in passing.   
> Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction that bears no resemblance to and claims no knowledge of the people about whom it is written.

Alex is in the kitchen opening a bag of spinach for a salad when she hears the door open.

"Only me!" Matt calls, dropping his keys in the bowl by the door. 

"In here," she tells him, and he stumbles in. Bless him, she's fairly sure he's tripped over every single threshold in her house. 

"Salome?" he asks.

"At the mall, and then with her dad," Alex tells him.

"Then no one will mind if I help myself," he says and wraps his arms around her from behind, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Mmm," she says, leaning back against his chest. "I could get used to this."

"Funny you should say that," he says in a voice that's slightly off. 

She turns in his embrace, looping her arms around his neck. "What's happened?"

"I was thinking," he says. "This movie. It won't take very long."

"They generally don't," she agrees. "Not nearly as long as you'd think."

"After the movie," he says, and then stops.

"Back to Cardiff, isn't it?" she asks. "For the Christmas Special."

"And if they haven't put you in it, I'm writing you in myself," he said, momentarily fierce. "But after that."

She shrugs. "Series eight, I suppose."

"And if it wasn't?" he asks.

She knows her eyes are wide as she looks at him. "You want to quit Who."

He looks a little anguished. "I don't want to exactly. I just feel like it's time. Kaz and Arthur, they've moved on already. I can't be the Doctor for the rest of my life."

"Well, my love, it might be a bit late for that," she teases. "For one, you'll always be my Doctor."

"I'd hope so," he says, and kisses her. 

"No worries about that one, darling," she tells him. 

He frowns. "Role of a lifetime and all. But I'm starting to feel like Eccleston has the right of it, never returning anybody's calls. It's too much. Even David stopped after three seasons, and he's mad for the Doctor."

"Then stop," she tells him. "Retire. Regenerate. Whatever you like."

He gazes searchingly into her eyes. "You're all right with it? Simple as that?"

"Darling, it's your life," she tells him. 

"Not only mine," he murmurs. She kisses him quite lingeringly for that, melting against him, and God, it's like a dream to stand here in her own kitchen wrapped up in his arms. She sighs happily and he kisses her head. 

"Illegitimi non carborundorum," she tells him in bad Latin. "I know what it's like, when you're finished with a show and they'll never finish with you. What would you do after? Theatre? It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"I was thinking movies," he says. He clears his throat. "Here in L.A., if at all possible."

\+ + + +

It was such a simple thing, his moving in. Temporary, of course, just for the duration of the movie. He'd offered to stay with Karen, but Alex wouldn't hear a word of it. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about his idea of them moving in together. This had seemed like as good a time as any to try it out. She was tired of loving him at a distance; a city's width was too far, at this point. 

"Stay with us," she urged when she picked him up at the airport. "A trial run, if you like. To see if we can all get along."

"I don't want to offend," he said hesitantly. 

"I'll be more offended if you don't stay," she told him.

"It wasn't you I was thinking of," he said with a sweet, ironic smile, putting his arms around her. "More the lady of the house."

"Nonsense, she adores you," Alex told him. "She's always telling me how you and Karen and Arthur should come and stay with us. She was nearly livid when Karen got her own flat. I talked to her about the possibility when you first got the movie. She was fine with it. But I suppose we should ask her again now that you're here."

"We'll do it together," Matt said, kissing her lightly.

Salome dashed over to Matt for a hug and a high five. "So the Doctor's staying in my house for a while."

"If that's all right with you," Matt corrected hastily. 

"Why would you ask me?" she asked. "Mum already said you were coming. Why wouldn't you stay? We have an extra room." 

"It's your house too, darling," Alex said. "Matt just wants to make sure you feel comfortable in your own house."

"But you never ask to have a friend over," Salome said. "You're a grownup." She gave them both one of those Looks. Matt blushed first, and then Alex, and then Salome herself. "Can I tell anyone?"

"You may tell two people," Alex said. "Friends you trust. It isn't anything so out of the ordinary, is it? Just a friend, filming in LA, and he happens to be a bit better known than some of our friends. It's always nicer to stay with someone than in a hotel, isn't it?"

"Hmm," Salome said. "And Dad?"

Alex sighed. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm fairly certain I wouldn't want him to offer me the courtesy of knowing who was in his house, as long as it doesn't matter to you. It's only a few weeks."

"You're not going to get all kissy-kissy in front of me, are you?" Salome asked. Matt and Alex looked at each other with slightly wide eyes; Matt shrugged a little and Alex half-smiled at him. Her daughter was too clever and they hadn't been subtle enough over the past couple of years. It didn't seem to be the end of the world.

Matt bent down to her level and took Alex's hand. "Hey," he said gently. "You know I respect your mum, yeah? Kissy or no kissy, she's amazing. One of my best mates." Salome nodded. "Well, I respect you just as much. It's important to me that you feel safe and happy and that you know I care what you think. So if you want me out, just say the word. Just like that." He clicked his fingers. "And no kissy-kissy, either, if you don't want, not even when you're not looking."

She stared at him for a long moment. "You're all right, Smith." 

Alex couldn't help laughing a little at that. 

"You should stay," Salome declared. "But only kissy when I'm not in the room, ugh. And don't worry, I won't tell anyone about that." She nodded at both of them and then sloped off to her room.

Alex stared at Matt a bit incredulously. 

"See, totally sorted," he told her, and she really laughed that time.

\+ + + +

And now she's gazing at him and it's really, truly, maybe possible that these few weeks of bliss won't be her only solace for the months that she isn't sure when she'll see him. That maybe the distance in their relationship will be much shorter.

"Should we talk to Salome about it when she gets home?" he asks, looking worried.

"She'll be heartbroken that you're not the Doctor anymore," Alex tells him, "and absolutely delighted if she gets to see you more often."

"I haven't got anything lined up," he says. "It's just a thought. I mean, Karen seems to be doing all right. She's going to be in that superhero thing."

"Are you certain you want to deal with all that spandex?" Alex teases him. 

He winces. "Surely I'll find a job. Preferably in a low-spandex market."

"They'd be idiots not to offer you any job you want," Alex assures him. "You're quite popular these days, Mister Smith."

"Utterly undeserved," he tells her. "All I do is make funny faces, unlike certain exceptionally talented people that I could name, and, in point of fact, kiss." He leans in and gives her a dramatic kiss.

"You do it splendidly and you know it," she says comfortably. "When would you be back?"

"After the Christmas special, I suppose," he says. "A few things to tidy up and then I'll be on a plane." 

"That isn't so long," she says. 

"I'm not asking to move in forever," he says. "I know it was too soon, when I said it before. I wasn't thinking things through - selfish, I know, and I'm sorry. I could get my own place."

"I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but when would you ever be there?" she teases him.

"Just in case," he says. "I mean, it's been amazing being here with you like a proper couple, and Salome's been a real trooper about it, but maybe we shouldn't make it permanent yet. I feel like we ought to be extra careful."

"You're so reasonable," she tells him. "When did you get so reasonable?"

"When I had the chance of breaking hearts that weren't my own," he says gently. "This would be worse, if it ended badly - much worse than sick-in-a-public-bin bad. I honestly can't say what I'd do if I ruined this."

"I know," she says quietly. "It feels like the end of the world from here."

He holds her close, not saying anything, and she wraps her arms tightly around him. She has felt so adrift in so many relationships, but his arms feel like safe harbor at last.

"A little flat," he says. "Temporary quarters. A studio, even. As much as I'd like to think otherwise, hoping doesn't make a family, and neither does a few good weeks."

"No, it doesn't," she murmurs. He strokes her hair. "Thank you." She hopes he understands all the things she's thanking him for: he hasn't made her choose between her daughter and him, he hasn't tried to forge a new family out of thin air, and he hasn't ever pressured her for anything. She loves him desperately, but her daughter will always, always come first and he's never tried to have it any other way. 

"I never want to hurt you," he tells her. "Either of you. You matter _so much_ to me, you and her. Unexpectedly much, honestly. I didn't know anything could feel like this. I couldn't face knowing I'd caused you pain." 

"I know you didn't exactly sign up to have a nearly-teenage daughter," she says.

"I did, though," he tells her. "I knew what I was in for. Being serious about you meant being serious about her too, and I am _incredibly_ serious about you, Alex." He takes her face in his hands and gazes into her eyes. She can hardly bear the joy in his eyes. It's overwhelming, the way he looks at her. 

"Besides," he says with a twinkle in his eye, his voice suddenly sexy, "if I get that flat, well, we've always got somewhere to go for date night, haven't we?"

She laughs, a frisson tingling down her spine. "And London? Our bit of garden?"

"I hope Salome loves football," Matt says. "Or that she can learn to, since you've raised her all American. We'll ruin that garden in record time."

"As long as you leave my roses alone," Alex teases. "Or whatever it is that you've planted for me in your pretty dreams."

"We can save the garden until she's ready to come house-hunting," Matt says. "I'm sure she'll want to pick out her bedroom."

"It might be a while," Alex warns. "It won't be easy for her. Matt-her-friend is very different from Matt-Mum's-boyfriend. There'll be adjusting all around." 

"Yeah, but it's worth the wait," Matt tells her in a soft voice. "We'll take it as slowly as we have to."

She nestles against him. "I wouldn't have thought we could go any more slowly than this."

"Trust me, I can make it last," he murmurs into her hair. 

"Oh, look who's all mouth," she teases. 

"Just you wait," he promises.


End file.
